a nature blog of south-east Victoria, mostly Gippsland

Category Archives: children and nature

There is a place in this world called the Land of Gipp, an enchanted land many will say. In this land the locals whisper in hushed tones that a green dragon lurks in the cool valleys of the forested hills. It is said that it lives on land but will take to water if it feels hungry. People say the male dragon has a throat of fire but no one has known a single person to be harmed by it. In fact, those who have seen it with there own eyes say it is friendly but very, very shy and will dive in the water if it sees a human approaching.

The magical Land of Gipp

So, what is this mysterious green dragon? I was curious. But where do I start my search for such a beast when the Land of Gipp is so big? Speaking with an old villager one day he said that many people call it the Water Dragon and that he himself had once caught a glimpse of it while fishing on a river bank when he was a child. When I asked him to describe it he told me “It had piercing red eyes with large sharp spines running from the top of its head down the length of its emerald green back. From across the river bank it saw me and it rushed to dive in the water but as it did so I saw its fiery throat. That sight has stayed with me forever”. When I asked this man if he knew where he saw this creature he did not know as it was over 70 years ago and his memory was fading.

I now knew roughly what it looked like and that it can be found in and along rivers so this was some help to begin my search.

I started my travels from the western end of the Land of Gipp looking for a river to begin my search for this puzzling creature. The western part of Gipp has only small amounts of forest, the trees cleared by farmers so they have enough grass to raise their cows, and the rivers here were small and few so I decided to push on to the misty mountains I could see on the far horizon.

For what seemed an eternity I eventually reached the mountains and entered large areas of steep forest where the trees reached to the sky like enormous hands.

It is said here in the Land of Gipp that the largest flowering trees in the world grow and after what I saw I believed them as it seemed like the trees were never ending in height. After a while I came across a small bubbling creek lined with thick ferns which had trunks the thickness of my body and towered over my head, shading out almost all the sunlight. I had a drink and refreshed my face in the cool stream and then had a thought. If there’s a creek then it should hopefully flow downhill into a larger creek, then maybe a river. This might be the place to find my dragon.

I began travelling back downhill again, this time keeping to the creek.

It had started as a trickle, then began jumping and crashing over rocks before joining with another creek and rushing as one down through the dense forest to join with a mighty river in the valley, just as I had suspected. The sun was close to setting so I set up camp in a small clearing and found some delicious wild fruits to eat. In the fading light I walked along the river peering at the bank hoping for a glimpse of the curious animal but it was nowhere to be seen. I decided to return to camp and get some sleep as I had been walking all day.

The next day I went for another stroll along the edge of the river. This time thesun was higher and shone on the bank revealing many large rocks along it’s edge and in the middle of the river.

I expected to see as much as the day before, nothing, so I had a quick search up and down the river and then turned around to head back to camp once more. Suddenly I heard a small splash from near one of the large rocks in the water but when I looked there was nothing to be seen. I slowly sat under a small wattle tree, mostly hidden from view and waited. I sat there for nearly an hour looking at the river when to my right I heard something moving in the leaves only metres from me. Then it stopped. I wasn’t scared at all as I knew if it was the dragon it would be friendly. Then, in the blink of an eye, I saw a green and orange flash almost a metre long scuttle down the bank and crash into the water. Was that the dragon? I wasn’t sure.

I sat there for a while longer searching the water and land when I caught something moving amongst the rocks heading for the river’s edge. Suddenly, a light green reptile about 80cm from it’s head to the tip of it’s tail emerged from out of the water and onto a fallen tree branch. I was shaking with excitement! Here was the mighty dragon I had hoped to see for so long and it was in full view!

It then moved onto the muddy bank amongst some vegetation and there I got a closer look. I could see that the scaly skin on it’s throat was a magnificent orange, yellow and black colour. This must be what people were saying about it’s fiery throat. And yes, there were the spines running from it’s head to it’s back as well as the fiery red eyes.

I opened my backpack and pulled out my Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia. There it was on page 410, the Gippsland Water Dragon Intellagama lesueurii howittii.

FACT: The Gippsland Water Dragon is a real reptile which lives in Gippsland in southern Victoria, Australia. It can grow up to 1 metre in length and lives along rivers, lakes and even along rocky beaches. Only males have the bright orange-yellow (and sometimes blue) throat and a light green body. Females are smaller and are mostly light and dark grey and both males and females have faint stripes, mostly on the tails. It is harmless to humans and they eat all kinds of things from fruits and leaves to fish and yabbies. Incredibly they can stay underwater for up to 1½ hours! In New South Wales and Queensland the colour of this lizard changes. There they have darker stripes and the male has red patches on his throat and belly as well as a dark line through the eye.

Keep an eye out for the spectacular Gippsland Water Dragon next time you’re near some water in the Land of Gipp, I mean Gippsland.

This is the first part of a regular ‘Land of Gipp’ series. These stories are targeted towards young kids and the aim is to portray nature with a sense of wonder and mystery. Hopefully this encourages them to get out of the house and explore! Please share this with any children you know. See also one of my previous postsHuman:nature where the inspiration and reason for this series originated.

I’ve been in the field of environmental management for a little while now and one thing that stands out is that most people who couldn’t care less about the environment and/or destroy it are the ones who have distanced themselves from it since childhood. If they do spend the occasional weekend in nature they’re not the ones who stop to appreciate the beauty of it in all its intricacies from the beetle scuttling amongst the leaf litter to the raucous honeyeaters feeding on blossoms in the tree canopy. I believe it all stems from what experience in nature, if any, you had as a youngster. Without experience and knowledge there’s no empathy and appreciation. Therefore conservation in general is hampered by the quality and quantity of kid’s (and adult’s) experience with nature. For conservation to be normalised in society and not something some people are ashamed to admit we must get kids in to nature as much as we can, especially in schools.

Kid’s spare time these days is generally dominated by the digital revolution, whether its playing games on a tablet, trolling the web or watching TV. Human’s love affair with everything digital is mostly influenced by friends and advertising. Society unfortunately sees this as normal, a way of disconnecting with reality while at the same time exploring and interacting in digital media. With the emergence of smart phones everything is now literally in the palm of your hand. Children adjust to technologies well and become tech savvy very quickly. Most young kids have poor judgement and are highly influenced by society which is a toxic combination when it comes to the digital world. They see it as the only way in which to ‘escape’.

The environmental movement today has, in part, benefited from digital media but its a double-edged sword. One one hand it has brought attention to conservation issues on an unprecedented scale and reduced paper consumption but on the other hand it has created a society which would rather view a forest on their phone than actually see it in person. It has also created a society which is bombarded by the media with conflicting information about environmental issues, particularly climate change. This results in many people becoming confused, complacent (and often annoyed) by all the flood of information and often feel hopeless that they can’t do anything to help.

When people do get out of their sterile world and immerse themselves in nature they get a sense of why and what the conservation movement is so passionate about preserving. It should be mandatory in the school curriculum to get kids on a regular basis out in to nature and to get them on their hands and knees exploring and appreciating all that they see. If we have any hope in reversing the destruction humans have created its in the kids these days because the adults (cough..cough..politicians..) are doing a terrible effort.

I know there’s many people who follow my blog who have kids, plus I’ve got two, so in the near future I’m going to write some short articles which hopefully sparks an interest in children to get out and explore their local bushland or park, not an article which forces information down their throat but one which portrays nature with a sense of mystery and generates adventure and wonder. Well, hopefully it does! So keep posted and get those future leaders out into the wilds.